About 6 p.m. Monday, James Dolan, the chief executive of Cablevision Systems, the most vehement opponent of the Bloomberg administration's plan to build a stadium for the Jets on the Far West Side, placed a call to his friend Donald J. Trump.
Mr. Dolan wanted to talk to Mr. Trump about developing the 13-acre parcel at the railyards that appears to be slipping from the Jets' grasp, according to two executives knowledgeable about the conversation. An hour earlier, the state's top legislative leaders rejected the Jets' four-year-old, $2.2 billion stadium project.
Mr. Dolan, whose $760 million offer for the property rights was cast aside by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in favor of one from the Jets, said he was still interested in going forward with his proposal to build a residential complex at the railyard along 11th Avenue between 30th and 33rd Streets.
Some executives at the authority and many people in political and real estate circles have questioned whether Mr. Dolan, whose company owns Madison Square Garden, was more interested in derailing the stadium long sought by the Jets and the Bloomberg administration than in building residential towers.
But the two men agreed to talk again.
Charles Schuler, a spokesman for Cablevision, would only say, "We are exploring our options."
Andrew Linn, vice president for planning and development at the Garden and the former executive director of the city's Planning Department, is supposed to present Cablevision's plan at a conference at the Newman Real Estate Institute at Baruch College on Friday.
The company had proposed building a very dense project, with 5,800 apartments in glass-and-brick towers, a five-acre park, a school and a library on a $360 million platform over the railyard.
Mr. Trump was unwilling to talk about his conversation with Mr. Dolan in any detail. He did say, "If the stadium is not going to happen, I'd be honored to participate in the development of the site."
The developer is friendly with both sides in the bitter contest. Mr. Dolan was married at Mar-a-Largo, Mr. Trump's private club in Palm Beach, Fla., and his father, Charles Dolan, once owned an apartment in Trump Tower. But Woody Johnson, the owner of the Jets, is a member of Mar-a-Largo and the nearby Trump International Golf Club.
Peter S. Kalikow, the chairman of the transportation authority, did not return calls requesting comment about the Far West Side yard. But Tom Kelly, a spokesman for the authority, said the agency had yet to determine what to do next.
"The situation is fluid," Mr. Kelly said. "We're evaluating our options."
Six days ago, Justice Herman J. Cahn of State Supreme Court dismissed legal challenges, including one filed by Cablevision, to the sale of the development rights over the railyards to the Jets for $250 million. But since the Public Authorities Control Board rejected the stadium project on Monday, the transportation authority could end its tentative deal with the Jets and open talks with Cablevision.
If the Jets deal is dead, some transit officials say it is more likely that the transportation authority would hold a new auction for the property, possibly after the land is rezoned for residential development. An appraisal done for the authority earlier this year put the value of the property at $920 million.
Cablevision spent tens of millions on television ads and lobbyists opposing the stadium, which it viewed as competition for the Garden, so City Hall is not warm to any proposal from it. One city official grumbled yesterday that the city should build a "great hall" at the railyard to spite Cablevision.